


officer (we're going) down

by saratoga_grounder



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Graphic medical procedures, Medical Trauma, Modern AU, Paramedic Rey, Police Officer Ben Solo, Shooting, Soulmates, emt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25111528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saratoga_grounder/pseuds/saratoga_grounder
Summary: “All responding units, be advised, the shooter has been apprehended, but officer down, I repeat, officer down.”Rey met Finn’s eyes nervously.  Officer down could mean anything from a bullet graze to a fatal gunshot in this situation, and odds were that one of their friends had just been injured or killed.  They of course weren’t familiar with every cop that could have been patrolling that area, but as senior paramedics their paths did cross rather frequently, and it was hard not to develop a friendly rapport.  Finn pushed down on the gas pedal a little harder and kept flicking glances in her direction.“Rey-”“He wasn’t working today,” she cut him off, although her jaw tightened a notch.-------------EMT Rey Kenobi's worst fears are realized one afternoon at work, leading her to reflect on her past and possible future with her new police officer boyfriend Ben Solo.---------------One shot based on a tumblr post I saw months ago and haven't gotten out of my head to get back into the writing game after a looooooong hiatus
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 41
Kudos: 183





	officer (we're going) down

Rey was next in line at the bakery when her shoulder radio chirped.

“Aid car needed, Congress and 8th, multiple gunshots, shooter still at large, all available units please respond.”

Rey glanced wistfully at the display case full of glazed pastries before stepping out of line and reaching up to her radio.

“This is aid car 2187 responding, en route to Congress and 8th, over,” she said while gently parting through the crowd of eager patrons. Her ambulance was idling in front of the bakery, where a fire hydrant conveniently kept a spot of coveted curbside clear for emergency pickups like these. Finn was staring out the window waiting for her, having heard the call and her response, and his face quickly fell when he saw her empty hands. 

“No doughnuts?” He asked, crestfallen. 

“One away,” Rey replied with an over-exaggerated frown as she jumped into the passenger seat. 

“The things we sacrifice to save lives,” Finn sighed dramatically, already flipping the siren on and veering into the stream of traffic as she buckled her seatbelt. “What will poor Ben think when you arrive home pastry-less?”

Rey rolled her eyes. “First of all I do not live with Ben-”

“Semantics,” Finn cut in.

“-as that would be completely inappropriate since we’re still just casually dating.”

“Soulmates,” Finn corrected. Rey held her breath as they sped through an intersection, which always made her nervous despite the sirens, and mentally had to agree with him, although she’d never voice such a suspicion out loud. They’d only really met a few months ago, after all.

“Second, you know he’d probably welcome the sugar break, that heathen.” Ben was more of an old fashioned baked doughnut person than the frosted, sprinkled, and stuffed monstrosities that Rey would have returned with. Finn grunted his reluctant agreement.

“And third, I’d have gotten a lot more shit if we hadn’t responded.”

“Even though our shift ends in two minutes,” Finn pointed out.

“Even though,” Rey agreed. 

“I don’t know how you manage to put up with such an annoyingly good, self-sacrificing, chivalrous individual,” Finn deadpanned. Rey fought to keep a grin off her face.

“It’s a constant struggle,” she agreed. Finn snorted a laugh, and then they both fell silent as they neared the crime scene and the gravity of the situation fell over them. 

That only made the static that cut through the radio louder, as a metallic voice urgently said “All responding units, be advised, the shooter has been apprehended, but officer down, I repeat, officer down.”

Rey met Finn’s eyes nervously. Officer down could mean anything from a bullet graze to a fatal gunshot in this situation, and odds were that one of their friends had just been injured or killed. They of course weren’t familiar with every cop that could have been patrolling that area, but as senior paramedics their paths did cross rather frequently, and it was hard not to develop a friendly rapport. Finn pushed down on the gas pedal a little harder and kept flicking glances in her direction.

“Rey-” 

“He wasn’t working today,” she cut him off, although her jaw tightened a notch. Finn exhaled in relief.

“Right. Good. Everything’s fine.” He babbled. Rey shot him a tense glare and he shut his mouth. Rey looked up at the buildings that were now passing slower, as they could see sirens flashing a couple blocks up. She was terrible at knowing street names or numbers, and had always preferred a mental map with familiar landmarks instead. Like how on their right was one of her favorite coffee shops, visited even more frequently now, as it was conveniently located between her apartment and Ben’s. 

Finn hopped the curb and finally brought the rig to a halt in front of a corner convenience store that was already surrounded by police tape. Rey grimaced as she recalled the place; the owner had been accused of drug dealing numerous times, but nothing had been able to stick. Sure enough, as she hopped out of the ambulance and went around the back to grab their med bags she spotted a strung out looking man with track marks she could see from 10 yards away being led to a patrol car in handcuffs. The officer shoved him none too gently into the back seat, not bothering to guide him down or shield his head. She rounded the other side of the rig and tossed Finn’s bag to him. He caught it with ease and they picked up a light jog towards the crime scene in sync, a testament to exactly how long they’d been partners. 

Officer Dameron noticed them coming and began waving them forward urgently. Rey’s eyes scanned the scene instinctively, ready to triage, and she knew Finn was doing the same. Another officer, Rose, she thought it was, called out to Finn as they passed. She was holding pressure against the thigh of an older woman, who lay whimpering on the ground. Rey nodded tersely as Finn looked at her and then veered off to help. 

Rey continued forward at a trot, breaking through the worst of the crowd to the main scene. The front windows of the store had shattered under gunfire, and the door was littered with bullet holes. There were multiple pools of blood scattered on the pavement, some with trails indicating that the victim had been able to crawl or drag themselves out of immediate danger. A couple good samaritans were helping people get clear, and looking them over for more serious wounds than the cuts and scrapes Rey could see. She stepped over a couple spilled coffee cups on her way through the door and rounded the first aisle, seeing Officer Hux kneeling in front of another civilian, blood pooling around his knees. Her eyes continued to scan the room, searching for the down policeman. 

“Kenobi!” Hux barked, turning his head to spot Rey. She let out a frustrated breath and ran over to him, not wanting to concentrate on anyone but whichever officer had been injured in action.

“Who got-” the words died on her tongue as she reached Hux and looked over his shoulder at the injured man in front of him.

It was Ben. 

Rey’s heart stopped. Her vision swam as she frantically took it all in, the jeans and dark gray sweater he was wearing, the way his hair was curling around his face, still slightly damp from a shower, the two bullet holes, one in his right chest and one lower, in his abdomen, slowly leaking blood despite Hux’s hands trying to slow the flow, the shallow rise and fall of his chest. No, no, it couldn’t be, he wasn’t working, he was off duty today, in another fifteen minutes she would have been at his apartment with-

Her eyes darted frantically back towards the doorway, to the hastily dropped coffee, one black, one thick and blended, logos from her favorite coffee shop glaring like a beacon. Her heart started again, but at a furious tempo, and her breath came in sharp, ragged burts, until Hux shouted her name again. 

Rey squinted her eyes closed furiously, clamping back panicked tears, took a deep breath, and went to work. 

She leapt agilely over Ben’s legs to his other side. “Move,” she growled at Hux, swatting the hand covering Ben’s abdomen away. Her eyes flicked once more to the wound in his chest, noting with clinical detachment that it was three inches too far to the right to have hit his heart. Could have nicked a lung, check for pneumothorax or hemothorax next or if breathing patterns change. Abdomen was more important at this moment, more arteries, risk of sepsis from punctured bowel-

Sure enough as Hux withdrew his hand a spurt of blood arced through the air. 

“Shit,” Rey swore, and one hand flew against Ben’s firm stomach as the other worked on muscle memory to blindly grab a handful of gauze from her med kit to pack inside the wound. She then held that with one hand, and rifled in a side pouch until she found a packet of QuikClot, which she ripped open with her teeth. 

_ Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die, _ the words repeated like a mantra in her head. She lifted the gauze away and again blood came out in fast, uneven spurts. She quickly dumped the packet of powder into the wound and slapped the gauze back down, holding it in place with one hand. 

“Help me turn him,” she snapped at Hux, who quickly complied and shifted his free hand around Ben’s side, lifting it a few inches off the ground away from Rey. Blood seeped from an exit wound in his abdomen, but not his chest. Rey grimaced and found another handful of gauze, packing it into the wound, then took his weight from Hux and gently lowered him onto his back again, trusting that his substantial body weight would hold it in place until she could examine him more fully. 

Rey’s stethoscope was on Ben’s chest within a second, evaluating his cardiovascular system.  _ Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die. _ Heart rate was high, but the rhythm was becoming steadier, lung sounds equal on both sides, although his respiratory rate was fast and each breath was shallow. Her fingers found his pulse in his neck and she continued holding pressure on his abdomen as Hux pressed on his chest. Slowly, so slowly, but surely, his blood pressure began to rise, each pulse beating stronger under her fingers, the pace slowing from its previous frenzy, and her own heart responding in kind. 

“Hold again here,” she directed Hux, directing his hand to cover the abdominal wound’s packing as she began her rapid trauma assessment. Head, no abrasions or contusions, so likely no concussion, although that couldn’t be confirmed unless-  _ until _ , she corrected herself- he woke up. Neck brace to stabilize any potential spinal problems. Obvious gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen. Both, she noted, would have been blocked by a kevlar vest. Pelvis stable. Fast nervous system response in all extremities.  _ Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die. _

By the time she looked up another officer had made their way into the store. “Get Finn, tell him we have a critical patient to transport to the emergency room and to bring the stretcher,” she ordered the man, as she gathered a few trauma bandages to apply over the packed wounds, trying not to focus on the fact that they were bullet holes tearing through her boyfriend’s body. 

Finn slid to a stop beside her with their gurney as she finished securing the bandages. He froze when he realized who was laying beside her.

“Two gunshot wounds, one to the abdomen with arterial hemorrhage and one one to the chest with no exit wound, vitals stable but critical, no other injuries noted,” she summarized, her voice shaking. 

Finn met her eyes, still stuck in place. “Rey,” he began, his voice cracking.

“He needs to get into an OR now,” she continued, “so help me get him on the stretcher.”

Finn shook his head. “Rey, you shouldn’t be doing this, you can’t-”

“I can’t leave him” Rey interrupted, her voice firm and resolute. Finn glanced back down at Ben’s still body once, as if torn, and then nodded briskly.

“Ok,” he said, “ Let’s go.”

They carefully loaded Ben onto the gurney, the effort taking all three of them, god Ben was huge, his feet hung off the end as if the stretcher had been made for midgets.

They turned to wheel him back to the ambulance, but before they could shove the stretcher into motion Hux grabbed Rey’s arm.

“Take care of him,” he insisted, and she nodded, once. 

“He saved my life,” Hux continued quietly. “ I was concentrating on the first perp, I didn’t even see the second one, I had my back to him, and Solo just flew at him. He came out of nowhere, there was no time to do anything except watch, and-”

“It’s ok,” Rey interrupted him, putting a hand over his where it grasped her bicep. “Ben knew what he was doing, it’s not your fault. But we have to move, now, if there’s even a chance that we can save him and repay the favor.”

Hux stumbled back a step, face pale, but nodded, and Rey and Finn picked up a controlled run, rushing Ben back to the rig. Finn caught Rey’s wrist as she began to follow the gurney into the back of the ambulance, but she ripped it out of his grasp.

“I need to be with him,” she insisted vehemently. Finn hesitated, weighing the options. “I can do this,” Rey whispered, holding his gaze. “Just drive fast.”

Finn read the resolve in her eyes and nodded, slamming the bay doors shut and leaving her alone with Ben. Rey tried not to concentrate on Ben’s face, his strong jawline, full lips, strong nose. No, that was too real. Instead she focused on the wires she connected to various machines and then his body, monitoring his vital signs. Her hands only shook for a moment as they gripped the needle for a catheter before she took a steadying breath and hit his vein on the first try. That got attached to an IV drip and Rey prayed a silent thank you to the good sense they’d had to exchange important information, such as their blood types, early in their relationship. She watched the blood transfusion creep through the line, doing an extra check for kinks and air bubbles before checking the monitors again, and then, finally, allowing herself to look back at Ben’s face.

His dark brown eyes met hers. 

“Hey, sweetheart,” Ben whispered. A tear rolled down Rey’s cheek as she reached out to push a strand of his hair back, air leaving her body in a rush. “I spilled your coffee,” he rasped apologetically, one corner of his mouth ticking up into a half smile, revealing an adorable dimple, and the sound that left her body was involuntary, and somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Ben’s eyes flicked down to her hands, gloves now covered in his blood. 

“Where,” he labored, “are my doughnuts?” This time her laughter came out in a genuine peal, even as she shushed him.

“No talking,” she chastised gently. “You were shot twice and lost a good deal of blood. You’re going to need surgery, we’re taking you to the hospital now.” 

Ben drew in a shaky breath, grimacing as his abdominal muscles spasmed.

“You’re an idiot,” Rey told him bluntly as she took his vital signs again. Finn hit a pothole and the ambulance bounced, causing Ben to gasp in pain. “You weren’t on duty, Ben,” she chided.

“Had to,” Ben argued weakly. “Right thing.” She glared at him and he fell silent.

“You’re not bulletproof. You can’t take those kinds of risks.” 

Ben’s eyes shifted away from hers, and a somber look flickered across his features. 

“Wouldn’t really matter,” he murmured. Rey took his hand, squeezing it tightly in her own.

“It would to me.” Ben’s eyes shot back to hers, a familiar old pain shining through, but this time laced with something like hope. 

“I,” Rey began, emotion choking her words, “I can’t lose you, Ben,” she finished in a broken whisper. Tears brimmed in his eyes, and she felt his massive hand squeeze even tighter around hers.

Then, suddenly, Ben’s back arched violently off the table, the monitors shrieking alarms. Rey reacted on instinct, throwing her body across Ben’s chest to hold him down as his body bucked.

“Finn!” Rey screamed, and she felt the ambulance pick up its already frantic pace. Her eyes scanned the monitors, Ben’s heart rate had skyrocketed, the rhythm becoming irregular, and his already shallow breaths had become a frantic pant. One hand clawed at his chest, reaching towards the bandaged bullet hole. 

“Can’t… breathe…” Ben gasped. Rey already had her stethoscope on his chest, confirming her worst fear.

“Finn,” she yelled up to the front again, “he has a tension pneumothorax!” She heard Finn swear in response.

“Eight minutes,” he shouted back, giving her an updated ETA that she couldn’t predict from the windowless bay. 

“We don’t have eight minutes,” Rey breathed to herself. Ben’s eyes were rolling back in his head as he struggled to get air.

“Ben,” Rey said urgently, “You have a collapsed lung and air building up in your chest. I need to use a needle to relieve the pressure, or else you’ll go into cardiac arrest.”

Ben’s eyes locked on hers and he nodded tersely. She slipped an oxygen mask over his face, turning the flow up to its maximum volume.

“It’s going to hurt,” Rey warned, already cutting off his shirt, exposing his broad chest, and squirting betadine solution to the right of the bullet hole, sterilizing the area. Ben gritted his teeth, sucking in as deep a breath as he could manage. 

Rey slapped on new sterile gloves and unwrapped a spinal needle, one counting Ben’s ribs. She reached the third rib and positioned the needle just above it, perpendicular to his chest wall.

“Ready? 3, 2,” She slammed the large needle into his chest forcefully, and Ben jerked upwards off the table again. A glance at the monitors told her that nothing had changed, and panic threatened to overwhelm her.  _ Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die.  _

“The flash,” she whispered to herself, and remembered to withdraw the metal insert from the cavity of the needle. Air rushed out of his chest in an exalting  _ whoosh _ , and Ben immediately, instinctively, drew in deep, rasping breaths.

Rey let out an enormous breath of her own, trying to stop her hands from shaking as she secured the needle in place with tape.

“Stay with me, Ben, stay with me,” she pleaded as she worked. 

“Hurts,” he gurgled, clenching his eyes shut. 

“I know, sweetheart, I know, but you have to hold on until we get to the hospital.” While his breathing had stabilized marginally, the collapsed lung doing more to refill its rightful space, his heart rate was still erratic and fast, way too fast. All the motion could have displaced whatever clots had formed in his abdomen, it was possible he was bleeding out internally right in front of her, but she knew the best medical decision was to leave everything in place until they arrived somewhere with full surgical capabilities; taking the packing material out could hurt more than help.

Ben’s eyes remained closed, his head lolling slightly to the side as he lost consciousness.

“Shit,” Rey swore softly, lightly slapping his cheek a few times until his eyes struggled open again.

“I need you to stay awake for me, Ben,” she urged him. 

“Talk… talk to me,” he murmured, his fist clenching in pain. Shock flickered across Rey’s face.

“Um, about what?”

“Anything.”

“Um, well, uh,” Rey stammered, her mind going absolutely blank.

“Us,” Ben forced out.

“Us, right, us,” Rey’s mind stuck on the first thought that flitted through it, and she couldn’t help but giggle. Ben cocked an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate.

“I thought you were such a dick the first time we met,” Rey blurted. Ben laughed once, a genuine sound that quickly broke into a wet cough. Rey put a hand on his shoulder to soothe him through the worst of it, glancing down at her watch. Five minutes until they hit the hospital.  _ Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die _ . 

“You ran right into me and spilled my latte, and then you judged the shit out of me for drinking something so, ‘girly,’ is the word you used, I think. You were so busy making fun of me that you didn’t even apologize.”

Ben opened his mouth to reply, but Rey started again before he could interrupt. “Yes, I know eventually you did, but I was irritated at you those entire two weeks.” The scene replayed in her head as if it were yesterday. 

_ The only bright spot in her day so far had been this latte. This job, there were some days where the bad smothered out the good, and this was one of them so far. Too many failures, not enough victories. But, now there was sugary caffeine, made just the way she liked it by a barista who was all too familiar with her order. Rey opened the door and stepped outside into the brisk air, fingers tightening around her prize, she saw the rig where Finn had snagged a spot around the next corner, and started moving that way, only to find herself flying through the air as a massive dark object came around the corner at a rapid pace, not giving her enough time to divert her course. The next thing she knew, she was on her ass, sidewalk slush slowly seeping through her pants. The mountain she’d run into leaned over her, and she realized it was actually a freaksihly tall- and hot- man. That thought quickly got pushed aside though because, _

_ “My coffee!” Rey wailed, springing to her feet without touching the outstretched hand of the person who’d knocked her down. “No!!” _

_ The man rocked back on his heels, clearly surprised by this reaction. “Uh,” he stammered. Rey whirled around, one finger pointing at him. _

_ “You spilled my coffee!” She said accusingly. The man, police officer, she realized, taking in his uniform, frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.  _

_ “Look ma’am, you were practically running, I didn’t see you-” Rey’s eyes narrowed into a dangerous glare. _

_ “Did you just call me  _ ma’am _?” She demanded. Overreacting, maybe, but if he’d known the shit day she’d had, he’d understand.  _

_ “Miss, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down.” Steam was practically rising off her at this point. “I’ll get you another-” the police officer looked down at the sidewalk where her drink had splattered and a look of disgust sprung onto his face. “What  _ is _ that?” _

_ “ _ That _ , was the only thing that was going to get me through the next four hours of this shift,” Rey hissed, seething. The cop raised his eyebrows. _

_ “It’s purple.” _

_ “It’s delicious,” Rey argued.  _

_ “It’s probably got your daily allotment of calories in it.” _

_ “Oh whatever, sasquatch,” Rey spat. “Now I have to get back in line and-”  _

_ On cue her radio went off, requesting an aid car, and she heard Finn respond immediately, volunteering them. The officer choked back a snort of laughter. Rey turned to him with an icy glare that actually made him wipe the grin starting to form off his smug face.  _

_ “I’m sure you can get another girly monstrosity at your next stop,” he called as she began to walk towards the ambulance again, taking the corner at a slower pace this time.  _

_ “I hope you choke on your doughnut,” she shot back over her shoulder. _

_ “I don’t eat doughnuts,” he replied. Of course he didn’t. She crossed the street and jumped into the passenger seat of the ambulance, fuming. _

_ “You will not even  _ believe _ what just happened,” she raged to Finn. _

Ben squeezed her hand lightly, bringing her back to the moment.

“And then you had the nerve to give me a small black coffee the next time you saw me. And it was cold.”

That glorious half smile played on his face. “Was keeping one in the car every day,” he whispered in explanation, and it was Rey’s turn to smile. In hindsight it was the only plausible explanation for how he'd had one ready to go as soon as their paths crossed at a crime scene, but she had to admire his dedication.

“I made sure you could see me toss it right in the bin,” Rey admitted. “I didn’t plan as well as you, though, so I had to run off and find a bakery as soon as we ran into each other again.”

She’d seen him as they’d approached the scene that time, how could she miss him when he towered over the crowd. She’d made a highly confused Finn pull over so she could hop out of the rig right before they’d arrived, and had run two blocks searching for a coffee shop with suitable pastries. Then she’d found the most artery-clogging option they had, a doughnut the size of her face stuffed with creme, glazed with pink icing, and then piped with generous amounts of creme frosting. Thankfully his squad car was the only one at the scene when she returned, and even better, he’d left his door unlocked. She’d placed the confection on the driver’s seat, sure from even their limited interactions that he’d prefer to be at the wheel. Then she’d strolled back into work, albeit a little sweaty, as if she’d been there the entire time.

“Sat on that,” Ben muttered, but the smile was still there. Rey grinned, because she knew that. She was juvenile enough that she’d waited, hidden around a corner, just to catch his reaction. She truly hadn’t expected that he’d plop down into the seat without even looking, but the look on his face and little yelp he’d let out as frosting exploded underneath him had been  _ priceless _ . The resulting pure murderous expression had her giggling, and glad that she’d stayed hidden. 

“Such an observant cop, really took in your surroundings,” Rey teased. “How long did we go on like that, a month? More? Playing pranks mostly, riling each other up. I’m not even sure when things started to change.”

“St. Patrick’s,” Ben replied without hesitation. Rey’s head snapped up, eyebrows scrunching together. That was still well in the window of antagonization she’d been thinking about, and she hadn’t even been working that day. “Coffee,” he reminded her, and the memory, one that she hadn’t even consciously retained, came rushing back.

_ March always had unpredictable weather, but they’d gotten lucky so far this year. St. Patrick’s day was sunny and mild, not a blizzard like they’d gotten the year before. The nice days were almost never the ones that coincided with her being off duty, so Rey counted herself doubly blessed. She would have gone out with her friends either way, but at least now they wouldn’t freeze, and she was only wearing a light jacket as they stumbled around downtown, bouncing between bars with no clear plan. It was somehow already dusk, even though it felt like just a couple hours ago that they’d hit their first kegs ‘n’ eggs party. _

_ Finn and Poe had been half a block ahead of her, arms around each other's shoulder, singing off key to some irish songs they definitely did not know the words too. Rey had been about to sprint to catch up to them, and probably leap onto one of their backs unannounced, when down the street she saw the familiar black squad car.  _ Perfect _ , she thought to herself, and entered ‘stealth’ mode as she crept down a side street towards it. She bet she could find a doughnut shop around here, they’d probably even have one with green frosting. As she exited the alley, having come up behind his patrol car, she saw just such a shop a few yards away. She glanced around herself covertly before dashing across the street and into the shop. It probably said something about the city they lived in that no one even spared her a second glance.  _

_ She made her way up the line, eyeing the selection, and then a tingling sense at the nape of her neck made her turn around and look out the window for some reason. And she saw him, standing near his patrol car. He placed both hands on the roof and leaned against the vehicle, hanging his head between them, and in that moment he looked so  _ tired _. He only allowed himself to stay that way for the briefest of moments before straightening up and rolling his shoulders, stern cop face settling back into place as he waded back into the sea of drunken revelers. Rey could practically feel the exhaustion radiating off of him, and she couldn’t help but sympathize. The drinking holidays were always the worst for their professions, lots of idiots doing stupid things, and the never-ending shifts took their toll. _

_ “Miss?” The cashier called, and with a jolt Rey realized it was her turn to order. _

_ “Right, sorry,” she stammered, “can I get one of those green doughnuts?”  _

_ The cashier was already extracting one with practiced efficiency as he called over his shoulder “Anything else?” _

_ “No,” she said, and then, out of nowhere, “Actually, yeah, a large black coffee.”  _

_ She exited the store, sneaking over to the car, and peered around before trying the door, actually surprised when it opened. She leaned inside and quickly deposited the coffee in the cup holder, and placed the doughnut on the dashboard, where it could be clearly seen. Then she eased the door shut and darted away to find her friends. _

“You remember that?” She asked incredulously. Ben nodded gravely.

“Only thing I ate all day,” he told her seriously, and her stomach winced in sympathy.

“I can’t believe you left your door unlocked around so many drunk people,” Rey mused, and Ben cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, including me,” she caved. “Seriously though, you’re lucky no one stole your car.”

“It was locked,” he told her seriously. Rey rolled her eyes.

“Uh, it clearly wasn’t, I opened the door.”

“Unlocked it for you,” Ben said simply. Rey knew she shouldn’t be encouraging his speaking, not with how uneven his breathing still was and how pale he was growing as the minutes ticked by, but she couldn’t help it.

“What?” She squeaked. “You saw me?” This time the smile that split Ben’s face was full, revealing both perfect dimples. 

“You…” he took as deep a breath as he could manage to get the rest of the sentence out. “You knocked over a trash can.”

Rey sat back hard on her stool, stumped. She didn’t remember that part, but then again, she’d been drinking for half the day at that time.

“I thought I was being stealthy,” she admitted, and Ben raised his eyebrows incredulously. 

“Fine, I was drunk and apparently knocked over a bin. But if that’s when things changed for you, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Tried. You didn’t remember. Didn’t push.” That… actually made sense, as up until now she  _ hadn’t _ remembered what had happened that day, and probably would have shrugged off any subtle, water-testing remarks. 

“Well, I guess it was shortly after then that I started coming around to you anyway,” she admitted. “You would actually give me a doughnut that I liked every once in a while, not old fashioned. Or put cream and sugar in a coffee for me. Never enough, but, still. So I started asking around about you. No one knew a ton, which was surprising, the way we all gossip, but nobody had anything bad to say either. I learned that Officer Solo worked hard, took his job seriously, and kept his head down, not stepping on any toes, except mine. 

“Then I started paying more attention at work. It was wild how much our paths crossed, once I was looking for it. And I started seeing that  _ Ben _ Solo, he was different. Softer, almost. That he smiled when he saw dogs on the street, and usually asked to pet them. That when he smiled it lit up an entire block, and nobody around him could resist smiling along. That he knew when to turn off the hard cop persona and comfort people in need. That’s who I started falling in love with,” Rey finished, her voice cracking. 

A tear leaked from the corner of Ben’s eye, and she knew it wasn’t from the pain, and that tears were slowly trailing down her own cheeks. 

“For me the actual moment, though, was when you gave me that latte. Even though it was summer, and I would have rather had an iced coffee,” she teased, earning her a quick smirk. “I found it sitting right here,” she said, pointing at a shelf in the med bay, “as we were packing up to leave a fire scene that you hadn’t even been at. And I just knew. Because you’d had no idea what I’d been drinking that first day, and I hadn’t had the chance to tell you, so you had to have gone back to that same shop and asked. Probably begged, since it was a seasonal drink. But you did that for me. And no one had done anything like that before.”

“I love you too,” Ben breathed, eyes falling closed. 

“I know,” Rey whispered back. 

And then Ben’s heart stopped.

So did Rey’s.

“No!” She shrieked. His ECG showed a flat, unresponsive line. 

Rey didn’t have a minute to panic, or cry, or be afraid, because Ben didn’t have that minute. She slammed a hand against the metal wall she knew would be next to Finn’s head.

“Asystole!” She yelled up to him, “Starting compressions.” And she did. 

Rey stood over the body of the only man she’d ever actually loved and beat his heart for him. She wasn’t gentle, she didn’t worry about hurting him or ripping any wounds open further. The only thing that mattered was that blood kept moving around his body. That stupid song Staying Alive played through her head as she pumped her fists again his checst, elbows locked, pulsing in time to the rhythm. She felt at least some cartilage, possibly a rib, crack under the strain, but that was the least of their concern given the situation. She kept going. Thirty pumps. Two rescue breaths. Thirty pumps. Two rescue breaths.  _ Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die. _

It felt like an hour, but based on Finn’s time estimate and driving skills must have only been 2 minutes, maximum. Then the med bay doors swung open, and a swarm of doctors rushed in. Rey knew better than to stop what she was doing, but she began rattling off the facts to them.

“Ben Solo, 30 year old male, police officer, took two unprotected GSWs, one to the abdomen through and through, one to the right chest with no exit wound. Arterial bleeding in the abdomen controlled in the field with QuikClot. Regained consciousness in ambulance after receiving one unit of Type specific B+ blood transfusion. Right lung collapsed en route, causing a tension pneumothorax, relieved with needle thoracostomy, stats have continually been dropping since then. Lost consciousness and presented with asystole two and a half minutes ago, when I immediately began CPR.”

The team of doctors had been busily working as she spoke, one examining the needle that still jutted from his chest, one attaching a new bag of blood to the IV, one using a handheld ultrasound to look at the fluid pooling in his belly, and one fiddling with the dials on the ECG, fine tuning the precision. 

“Stop compressions,” the last one, who she belatedly recognized as Luke Skywalker, chief of surgery, told her firmly, his voice ringing with authority. She did so immediately, and they all stared at the monitor, holding their breaths. After a moment the line on the screen started to vibrate suddenly. Dr. Skywalker let out a huff of relief.

“Fine V-Fib, charge the paddles,” he snapped. Miraculously there was a nurse there to do just that.

“Charged to 300,” she told him, as another nurse, how were they even all fitting in here, Rey wondered in the back of her mind, slapped adhesive gel pads on Ben’s side and chest. Dr. Skywalker pushed the defibrillator handles against the pads.

“Clear!” 

Ben’s body rose off the table in a jolt, and then crashed back down. The screen fell back to vibrating silence after a moment.

“Push one of epi, charge to 350,” Skywalker barked, and placed the paddles back on Ben’s chest as people scurried to obey his orders. 

“Clear!”

Still no activity on the screen.

“One of atropine and charge to 360.” Watching from the outside Rey was amazed at how calm everyone was. Her heart felt like it was leaping out of her chest.

“Clear!”

Nothing.

And then, a small blip. Then another. Then a larger one. And then he was back, his heart launching back into a semi-normal rhythm. The entire ambulance let out a relieved breath with Rey, and everyone rushed back into work mode. The gurney was efficiently removed from the ambulance, and a team began pushing Ben away at a run, calling out which operating room had been prepared. 

Rey hadn’t moved since Dr. Skywalker had told her to stop compressions, and now that he was gone she found he still couldn’t. Finn jumped into the back with her, and wrapped her in a tight hug immediately. Her breaths were shaky as he pulled her head against his chest, stroking her hair. Her arms hung limp at her sides. 

“Rey, it’s ok, it’s going to be ok,” Finn murmured a steady stream of reassurances into her ear. She could only nod numbly. 

“I thought I was going to spend my life with him,” she whispered, feeling  _ empty _ . 

“You still can,” Finn whispered back, his voice full with emotion. “Oh, Peanut, you still can.”

“I, I should wait for him,” she said quietly, and Finn nodded.

“Come on,” he replied gently, taking her hand and leading out of the ambulance. They wove through the lower floor of the hospital until they reached the surgical waiting room, where Finn sat her down in a chair and promptly went to ask the desk nurse for an update before she even had to ask.

An eternity passed before he returned, a cup of vending machine coffee in each hand as well.

“He’s in surgery,” he told her quietly as he pressed the styrofoam cup into her hand. She stared down at it, unable to raise it to her lips, even though she could tell it was the perfect amount of cream and sugar. “They had to go into his chest at the same time as his abdomen to remove the bullet and figure out where the bleeding was coming from. Dr. Holdo is the cardiothoracic surgeon, and Dr. Ackbar is doing the trauma.” For some reason that ticked a strange box in Rey’s head.

“Why not Skywalker?” She mused out loud. “He was in the ambulance, he ran the code.” Finn shook his head, uncertain. 

“Didn’t say. But she did know that he’s been stable thus far, although it’s going to be a long surgery.”

“I’m staying,” Rey protested, at the exact same time Finn said “I’ll stay with you.”

She gave him a weary smile, grateful for the millionth time that he was her best friend and partner. 

Hospital waiting rooms were literally the worst places on the planet. Time slowed to a snail’s pace, every minute agonizingly drawn out. Finn went to the cafeteria at one point, to get them a snack, which Rey knew she wouldn’t be able to eat. Instead, she sat in an uncomfortable chair, elbows on her knees, head in her hands, and wracked her brain about every detail of what had just happened.  _ This isn’t normal, _ a rational part of her mind chided.  _ You’ve been in this exact situation a dozen times with different people, and you’ve never, ever, felt this way. Never truly doubted. _ But she was doubting now. What else could she have done, had she been too slow, had she missed something while they were talking, had she been too distracted-

“Miss Kenobi,” a familiar voice pulled her back to reality. Rey belatedly noticed that someone had sat down next to her.

“Chief Skywalker,” she croaked, surprise leaking into her voice. “I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t see you there.”

Dr. Skywalker laid a hand on her shoulder in reassurance. “I’m the one who needs to be thanking you,” he told her seriously. “The nurses said you were the girl that came in with Ben, the EMT that was with him in the ambulance.” Rey nodded mutely. “Well, then, Miss Kenobi-”

“Rey,” she interrupted. “Sorry, sir, but it’s just Rey.” He nodded.

“Well, then, Rey, I owe you a large debt for saving my nephew’s life. And please, call me Luke” A shocked look crossed Rey’s face.

“Ben is your nephew?” Luke nodded fondly “And he’s ok?” Luke’s face fell slightly, but there was in hope in his voice when he answered.

“He’s still critical in surgery. But he’s been holding steady, which is a good sign. And I have my best surgeons working on him.” 

Rey gnawed on her lower lip for a moment before blurting out “Is this my fault? He was fine for a while in the ambulance, well, obviously not  _ fine _ , but still, was there something I missed? Something I should have done?”

The older man put a hand on Rey’s shoulder comfortingly, waiting until she met his eyes. “Rey, listen to me. You did everything in your power to save that boy. I know surgeons who would have shown more hesitation, alone in a moving ambulance, than you did in making and carrying out a treatment plan. If you were not there, administering care, the same things would have happened, but Ben would be dead. Do you understand me?”

A knot loosened in her chest and she nodded, tears running down her face anew. 

“And besides,” Luke continued, “You started saving his life long before this afternoon.” 

Rey looked up questioningly, and Luke cocked an eyebrow knowingly. Rey felt a warm blush rise in her cheeks. “We, um, hadn’t really gotten around to telling people yet,” she excused herself lamely.

“You didn’t have to,” Luke told her. “Ben has been a different person these past few months. Like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. He’d mentioned a spunky EMT in passing, and I drew conclusions. I wish we were meeting under different circumstances, though.” Rey nodded somberly.

“He never told me you were his Uncle,” she admitted. “Or that he had any family.” Truthfully, it didn’t come up much, since she didn’t have anything to share either. Luke patted her shoulder in understanding.

“I would have guessed as much. It's been hard for him, since he lost his parents. He put up some walls, trying to keep his heart safe from that kind of pain. But with you, he’s more relaxed. More, whole, I suppose.” He then looked down at her uniform, which was covered in splashes of blood. She’d forgotten until that exact moment

“Let’s get you cleaned up. I’ll have someone bring over a spare set of scrubs for you, and there’s a shower in the locker room if you want it.” Rey bit her cheek nervously. What if something happened when she was gone and they couldn’t find her? Luke seemed to read this on her face. “I’ll just have the scrubs sent over, and you can change whenever you’d like.”

Luke glanced up at the clock, then back down to her. “I’m going to go check on things, but I’ll make sure you stay well informed,” he assured her, and she nodded with a small smile before he strode off. 

Finn returned a few minutes later and together they sat in silence. A resident did come by with a set of scrubs, which Rey replaced her soiled uniform with in the bathroom. The rinsed the blood off her arms and face with cold, bracing water before rushing back out to the waiting room, where Finn assured her she hadn’t missed anything. Occasionally a nurse would come by, as Luke had promised, to give a brisk update. They were all the same. Still in surgery. Still stable. Still critical.

The sun had long since set, and they continued their vigil. Rey had told Finn multiple times that he should go home, and he had bluntly told her that she was being stupid and of course he wasn’t leaving her here alone. Nearly nine hours passed with them barely leaving their seats, only rising to use the restrooms or sometimes pace nervously for a few minutes.

An eternity later Rey looked up as footsteps approached them, and Luke rounded the corner, looking exhausted. She leapt out of her chair, feeling like she was going to vomit as she searched his face, trying to puzzle out if the news was going to be good or bad.

“He’s out of surgery,” Luke said with a small smile, and Rey might have collapsed to the floor if Finn hadn’t risen next to her and put an arm around her waist. “They had to remove a part of his spleen,” Luke continued, “And he lost a lot of blood. Infection is still a real risk, and he’ll have one hell of a recovery ahead of him once he wakes up.”

“But he will wake up?” Rey prodded, needing to hear it.

“There’s nothing to make us think he wouldn’t,” Luke said in cautious doctor language. “He’s being moved to the ICU now.”

“When can I see him?” Rey asked anxiously. Luke quirked the corner of his mouth up.

“Technically only family is allowed in the ICU, but what good would this fancy job title be if I couldn’t break a rule every now and then. As soon as he’s set up in his room, as long as we can get him extubated and recovering without any complications. I’ll send someone for you when it’s time.” 

Luke strode away, and Rey turned to Finn. “Finn, I love you, but you should go home. I can handle it from here.” Finn hesitated, clearly torn. 

“It doesn’t make sense for you to wait out here just because I’ll be waiting in there,” Rey continued.

“You call me,” Finn said vehemently. “The minute anything happens, you call me so I know you’re ok.” Rey nodded, and Finn swept her into a bone crushing hug. She’d be lonely without him, but he had already done so much for her, and besides, she had a feeling Luke’s rule bending could only stretch so far. 

So Rey waited alone, for what seemed like another nine hours. Then a new nurse, night shift must have started, came to bring her down to Ben’s room. She braced herself for the worst before she walked in the door; she was a professional and knew that medicine was usually ugly. But she found tears rising in her eyes again as she entered the room because this was  _ Ben _ . Of course he looked beautiful, even after trauma surgery. There were less wires and tubes than she had been expecting, and if she only focused on his face it was easy to pretend that he was just sleeping peacefully, hair curling gently around his face, feet practically dangling off the edge of the bed. The nurse left her alone with him, telling her to push the call button if there was an emergency. 

Rey perched on the edge of the armchair in the corner of the room, afraid to go closer, afraid to touch him right now. 

“I really need you, Ben,” she said after a minute of silence, her voice raw. “I know it's selfish, to ask you to fight through all of this, but I  _ need _ you. I need your laugh, and your stupidly cute dimples, and the way you make me feel like I’m home. So you have to wake up, ok? It doesn’t have to be right this minute, although that would be nice, but you have to open your eyes again for me. Because I can’t do this without you. I don’t know how I  _ did _ it without you for so long. So, if you can hear me, just come back to me, Ben. I’ll be here waiting.” 

A small part of her was actually shocked that he didn’t just open his eyes and respond right then and there. The science part of her brain told her that he’d endured a huge stress, not to mention a large amount of time under anesthesia, and that it would take hours for him to come around, but the romantic part of her brain was highly disappointed. The adrenaline rush she’d been riding all day must have been wearing off, if her brain was getting sassy with itself. She settled down into the armchair after a couple minutes of waiting, her legs curling up into her chest. She stared diligently at his chest, watching the steady rise and fall, comforted by the sound of his breathing…

Rey burst awake the second she realized she was sleeping. The blinking monitors told her Ben was still stable, and she frantically looked up at the clock on the wall. 4:30 am! How had so much time passed in the blink of an eye when it had been dragging the entire night? She glanced back at Ben, seeing the chocolate brown of his eyes, and then turned back towards the door, looking around for a nurse to give her an update-

Wait.

Brown eyes.

Open eyes.

She’d expected to give herself whiplash turning back around, but her movement was so cautious and slow, as if her brain wanted to hold onto the fantasy for a few moments longer before it was proven wrong. But when she got there, Ben Solo was looking right at her, a half smile on his face.

“Ben.”

“Hey, sweetheart,” he croaked. Rey nearly whimpered, doing everything in her power to not throw herself across the room on top of him, moving with deliberate slowness as she stood up and made her way to the side of his bed.

“Hi,” she said weakly, feeling those uncharacteristic tears well up for the umpteenth time that day. She knew what he would need first, and grabbed the cup of water on the side table, holding the straw up to his lips. He took a slow, small sip, only coughing a little, and then a larger, surer one, his eyes never leaving her face. She set the cup down and Ben opened the hand closest to her.

“C’mere,” he said softly, and she put her hand in his, tears falling in earnest as he wrapped it up tightly. He nodded his head gently to the side, and she was about to say not a chance before he raised his eyebrows slightly at her, the barest challenge. She grinned, and every so gently climbed into the bed with him, nestling herself in the sliver of empty space on the edge, careful not to jostle him. He let out one quick hiss as she settled in, and she immediately froze, eyes whipping up to his face, but he was already smiling at her again.

“Worth it,” he promised, as she held his hand and rested her head against his uninjured shoulder.

“Don’t ever do that to me again, Ben Solo,” Rey whispered, her face inches from his. She could stare into that face forever, it seemed. 

“Promise,” he murmured back, caressing her hand with his thumb as his eyes closed again. This time, with her head on his chest, moving with the sound of his breathing, it was all too easy to let sleep take over once again.

They awoke to Luke making a tsking noise, standing over their bed. 

“Rey, I expected better from you,” he chastised, but there was laughter in his eyes. She blushed anyways, although Ben just smiled slowly. “Out,” Luke ordered, and Rey obliged, once again moving slowly and carefully.

“Good to see you Uncle Luke.” God, his voice already sounded stronger, regaining most of its baritone quality. 

“You gave us quite the scare there, kid. Next time you decide to be a hero, maybe make sure you have the proper gear. Or are armed, at least.” Ben looked down bashfully, and Luke nodded in satisfaction. “I’m not going to lie to you, Ben, you’ve got a long road ahead of you before you’re back to busting crime. Something tells me you’ll have a very capable babysitter, though,” he said, his eyes twinkling as he glanced at Rey. Her blush deepened, but Ben had the nerve to meet his Uncle’s gaze straight on, not a hint of embarrassment.

“I’m very lucky, sir,” he said seriously. Luke chuckled.

“I think you both are, son.” He patted one of Ben’s legs affectionately, only earning a small grimace of discomfort. “Rest up, kid. Be nice to the nurses and they’ll give you extra jello.”

Ben groaned and Rey couldn’t help but laugh out loud. A mandatory diet of sugar, Ben’s worst nightmare. Luke winked at her as she exited, and her heart warmed. Was this what having a family felt like?

She fell into an easy silence with Ben. Silence with him was never awkward. When he was ready to say something, he said it. It was comforting knowing that, not having to second guess every long pause in conversation. She imagined that would get exhausting quickly. She was happy to just sit in her chair and look at him, drinking in his image as if she hadn’t seen him in years, not hours. 

Ben drifted in and out of consciousness over the next few hours. It was a healing sleep, though, not a risky one, and Rey felt comfortable enough to leave the room and call Finn, giving him an update on Ben’s status. He promised to swing by and drop off a fresh set of clothes, plus some snacks, as soon as he could. 

Rey returned to Ben’s room as the nurse who was seeing to some of his more delicate needs was leaving, settling into her chair with familiar ease already.

“My turn,” Ben said suddenly. Rey looked up at him quizzically. “I think part of me knew the first day. I ran into you, and before I could even reach down to help you up you were in my face, making a fuss over your coffee of all things. Didn’t even mention the fact that you were soaking wet in freezing weather.”

“Oh, I did later when you weren’t there,” she assured him, and he grinned.

“Fair enough. But at the time you were just so… wild. In a good way,” he hurried to add, seeing her brows knit together. “You were a force to be reckoned with. I wasn’t completely sure you weren’t going to hit me.”

“Neither was I,” Rey muttered. 

“I felt like an ass afterwards, but you had just thrown me so far off my game. I kept telling myself to forget about it, but somehow you were all I could think about. Almost drove Hux crazy talking about you every chance I could. Then I bought all those coffees because I knew it would rub you the wrong way, and I just waited. Every call we got my hopes rose and then fell when another EMT crew showed up. Then when it finally happened you were so angry, and I almost talked myself out of continuing any interactions.” Ben coughed quietly a few times, and Rey leapt up to grab his glass of water, letting him take a few deep sips before he nodded. She began to head back to the chair, but he stopped her in her tracks.

“Don’t,” Ben pleaded softly. Rey frowned slightly, looking around the room for anyone who could tattle to Luke, but eventually she sighed and then smiled, folding herself between his body and the bed rail. 

“Keep talking,” she whispered, nuzzling her face into his neck and closing her eyes.

“I thought it was done,” Ben continued, “and then, one day, a giant frozen slushie was on the hood of my car. I looked up and there you were, leaning over a patient, so serious until you looked up at me and winked.”

“You threw that frappe against a wall, if I remember correctly,” Rey whispered. 

“You do,” Ben murmured, shifting so that his arm came around her body to hug her into him. The motion cost him, and he spent a few seconds taking deep, pained breaths. “But in my defense, I’d just lost an armed robbery perp, and was convinced that the girl I was fascinated with had only been put in my life to torture me.” Rey laughed into him and his chest rumbled as he practically purred with pleasure. 

“Like I said, St. Patrick’s Day was the first day I had actual hope. I’d watched you  _ try _ to sneak around, and knew you were probably grabbing some disgustingly sugary doughnut as drunk food. But then you stumbled towards my car.” Rey buried her face in his shoulder in embarrassment, and Ben nuzzled his nose into her hair, breathing in her scent. “I pretended not to see you, since that was what you clearly wanted, and I was mildly curious, and sure enough you went for the door. I opened it, and watched you put the food and coffee in there for me. You didn’t even wait around to rub it in, just left. And that was,” he broke off, choking up for a moment, “That was the nicest thing anyone had done for me in a while.” Rey squeezed his hand silently.

“So I started paying attention too. I noticed which places you were carrying cups from, stopped judging your sugar intake, and started planning ahead to surprise you when you were on duty. I was more subtle about asking around than you were, but everyone I mentioned your name to just smiled, and said that you were such a positive person, bright and sunny and infectiously cheerful. I had to laugh the first time because it was so at odds with the evil demon I’d been falling for.” That earned him a full laugh from her, and a smile spread across his face even as he closed his eyes. 

“So eventually I went back to the original scene of the crime, because I knew that would be what it took to truly make amends for that first disastrous encounter. And you’re right, I had to bribe the barista to make that heinous drink again, but she did it because even she knew you and liked you. I was too much of a coward to give it to you face to face, so I left it in the ambulance. The next twenty four hours were some of the longest of my life as I had to just wait.”

“I know the feeling,” she whispered, and he ran his thumb in circles across her hand, soothing her. 

“But then the next day you walked right up to me,” he picked right back up. Rey wasn’t sure she’d ever heard him talk this much at once. “You handed me a coffee and stood next to me, inserting yourself into my conversation with Hux as though it was completely natural, and you’d been there all along. It felt so  _ right _ . When you walked away I told Hux that I was going to marry you, and god help me, I think he believed it even then.” Rey tensed slightly under his arm, and he knew why, but continued anyway.

“After that it felt natural to grab things for you, and for you to drop things off for me. It was like a sixth sense, predicting when we’d run into each other. And it was so normal to ask you to dinner after a shift one night, even though you were literally eating a doughnut at that very moment. Then you were just a part of my life. It was just so easy.”

Ben felt Rey sit up in the bed, and opened his eyes to find her staring at him.

“What I’m trying to say,” he continued steadily, “Is that I love you, Rey. And I need you, so much more than I wanted to, so much more than I knew I could. And I do plan on marrying you, but I know better than to ask now. But, what do you say, sweetheart? How about moving in with me?” He glanced down at his battered body and frowned. “Since I’m apparently going to need a lot of help anyways. Not that that’s why I’m asking-” he rushed to clarify, but Rey was already cupping his face in her hands, gently pressing her mouth to his. Ben kissed her with with more vigor than she’d thought a man who’d been practically dead a few hours ago could have managed. 

“Yes,” Rey breathed. Ben raised his eyebrows.

“Yes to what?” He asked cautiously. 

“I’ll move in with you,” Rey said, smiling wide. Ben couldn’t help it, he grinned along with her. “And, probably to the other part too,” she admitted softly, “just… not today.”

“The ring is at home anyways,” he said jokingly, although it wasn’t a joke, it had been sitting in his night stand since just after St. Patrick’s Day. 

Rey just laughed, and kissed him again, deeper this time. When they finally broke apart she nestled back down into his shoulder, his arm encircling her easily. They lay in silence for a while, both drifting back towards sleep.

“You saved me,” Ben murmured into Rey’s hair as he felt her breaths deepen.

“I know,” she breathed in reply. “But you saved me, too.” 

“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> This took so many different turns than I originally anticipated, and still shows obvious signs of rusty writing skills, but I'm so happy and excited to finally be getting back at it instead of fuming about TRoS in my head all the time. More than happy to take prompt suggestions for more one shots (that hopefully don't all end up being this long)!  
> Also come find me on [tumblr ](https://saratogagrounder.tumblr.com/)


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